Anderson Varejao

The first round of the NBA Playoffs wrapped up on Sunday, with one awful Game 7 that I think everyone saw coming (I at least figured it was a blowout) and one fantastic Game 7 that seemed like a blowout early on, only to become a thriller. Paul George isn’t elite! Oh no, we’re STILL coming back to that one?!

While playoff hoops means very little to the fantasy discussion, there are some little nuggets (no, not Nate Robinson) that can help point us to some sneaky values in the subsequent season’s fantasy draft. I’m thinking of Draymond Green in the 13-14 playoffs going 11.9/8.3/2.9/1.7/1.7 before his breakout, Otto Porter, etc. But as we’ve progressed to a few games in the Second Round, there really ain’t that much going on anymore for fantasy purposes. To be completely honest – and I know it might be sacrosanct – I don’t watch a ton of playoff hoops, especially early. I’m not a fan of a team anymore, it’s not fantasy, and I admittedly get a little fatigued. It’s a long season! But ya know – overall – basketball is awesome! And there were a few takeaways that I think could be applicable to 16-17. Here’s a few interesting notes from NBA Playoffs so far:

As many of you already know (or as my avatar may suggest), I’m a Canadian so I don’t really have a dog in the 2016 United States Presidential fight. I do, however, live close to the border and have enjoyed traveling throughout the United States (including the entire northeast, Florida, California, Colorado, Hawaii and the U.S. Virgin Islands) with my wife over the better part of the last ten years. So I have a keen interest in American politics as it indirectly impacts “my world.”

That leads me to my admission – I watched President Barack Obama’s eighth and final State of the Union address last night (and the subsequent analysis & reaction) instead of basketball. There was basketball to be watched up here, I just chose not to. But it gave me some perspective – it reminded me that a common sense approach to the big picture issues is never as simple as it should be, and that holds true in the NBA as well. Examples from some of the 16 teams in action on Tuesday alone:

The Timberwolves have a wealth of young talent to cultivate and yet they start Kevin Garnett & Tayshaun Prince?

The Suns have a cancerous presence in their locker room (Markieff Morris) and they can’t decide what to do about it – they give him multiple healthy DNPs in a row, and then they unleash him for 27 minutes, taking opportunity from someone like Jon Leuer (17 minutes) who could actually be a part of their future plans.

The Celtics and Knicks – both of whom are in the Eastern Conference playoff hunt – continue to run heavier-than-necessary rotations rather than identifying the best court combinations and maximizing their efficiency and output.

The Rockets have an extremely fragile, high-salaried starting center (Dwight Howard) who is prone to usage-related injuries and they run him for 38 minutes when they have a number of other very capable young frontcourt players to ease the burden.

The Bulls appear to embrace their future for a moment by giving a solid rotation spot to Bobby Portis, only to yank it out from under him (he played 4 minutes on Tuesday) once they’re back to full health.

The Pelicans offer center Omer Asik a massive contract in the offseason and even when he’s playing well (13 rebounds, a steal and a block, team-high +7 net rating), and they’re absent their best frontcourt player, he can’t get minutes (18).

Essentially what I’m saying is that there are a lot of things we, as fantasy owners, think should happen by any measure of common sense, but just don’t because of a number of factors beyond our control. We can go data mining until the cows come home and have an open & shut case to make why Player X deserves more minutes/opportunity, but it doesn’t matter. We can only do so much. There will always be someone on the other side who impacts that situation and we just have to make the best of it. Thankfully, the NBA has a long season and, unlike football, one or two bad weeks won’t spell doom for your campaign. I love that we get 82 games to try and figure out what the heck is going on. We’ll never be right 100% of the time, no matter that the stats or common sense says we maybe could be, but it sure doesn’t stop us from trying…

Like LeBron James, I find underwear constricting. It just smashes shizz together that feels so much more free in some gym shorts or pajama pants. Let me be free!

And I just can’t imagine what Tyler Johnson goes through… Must be like putting on shrunken spandex when he’s getting suited up every night! He certainly brought the full Johnson effort against the Kings, putting up 19/3/3/1/0 with 3 treys on 6-8 FG and 4-4 FT. That line is longer than… Ok, ok, we get the idea… Every time he gets run, he just seems to deliver. He got a DNP in the opener, played 1:28 in game 2 before seeing an expanded role, and had a couple sub-20 minute games in there. But in the 7 he’s played 20+ minutes, he’s 11.6/3.7/2.3/0.9/0.7 with 1.1 treys and hitting over 60% from the field. All with only 1.3 TO! I would call him a metrics whore, but with assets like we talked about above there, it’s tough not to be! Even though Hassan Whiteside is tripdubbing here and there with his redonkulous blockage, Johnson finished up down the stretch with the other 4 regular starters. Gerald Green only played 16 minutes, and it looks like Johnson and Justise Winslow are firmly entrenched as your main two subs. Johnson certainly isn’t a must-own in 12ers, but that’s three straight Thursday games he’s been a fantastic streamer. It’s almost like I said that on Monday in The 7 Ahead! I’m not one to toot my own horn too much, but then again, it’s not as big a horn as Johnson… I’m just your regular ol’ trumpet while he’s a tuba! Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy hoops action:

Of course I started writing this open when Anthony Davis was 1-16, then he got red hot AND MADE TWO IN A ROW! Somebody cool him off, he’s NBA Jam on fire! Brow was more uncomfortable with the ball in his hands than watching Scary Movie 2 with your parents last night, wrapping up with a 4-20 FG outing. Might be the worst reference to 420 I’ve ever seen! 10-15 FT helped salvage some points – and he got his 3 swats – but 18/6/2/0/3 with 5 TO and a deathstroke to your FG% is not what the #1 pick ordered. Curry on the other hand treated New Orleans like Hurricane Katrina! Too rough? Fine, then he treated them like BP… Yikes, Nawleans has had a rough ride. Then their NBA team has everyone get hurt! Steph just straight whipped it out (I mean his MVP trophy!) and pummeled the Pelicans and their awful PG for 40/6/7/2/0 on 14-26 FG (5-12 3PTM 7-7 FT). Hey, it’s opening night, and the Warriors are phenomenal at disrupting big men. And the Pelicans had all their PG minutes played by guys on the street a week ago. Hopefully you own Curry in a league or two, and I’m literally about to spam Brow owners as hard as LinkedIn emails. Seriously, I don’t care if some recruiter looked at my profile, I don’t need an email on that ish! No, no, blurb on Ish Smith is later… What an awful Pelicans team… Here’s what else went down on NBA’s opening night:

We start the New Year off with disappointing news about one of the NBA’s and fantasy’s best players. The Cavs announced on New Year’s Day that LeBron James would miss the next two weeks with knee and back strains, an absence that could reach as many at 10 games. The Cavs are hopeful that the two weeks of treatment, which will include anti-inflammatories, will help get James back to 100% and prevent further injury. James has been a durable player his whole career, never missing more than five straight games so the news is definitely rare.

You’re not going to find a replacement for James off waivers and will just have to wait out the two weeks until your star player is hopefully healthy and back in the lineup. For the Cavs, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love will see upticks in fantasy value, as they are asked to carry more of the offensive load.

Love missed Wednesday’s game against the Bucks with back spasms, but is expected to return to the lineup on Friday against the Hornets. This could be a monster game for Love and Irving, as the Hornets won’t have Al Jefferson or Lance Stephenson (more on them later).

The new year brings us the glorious 2nd coming of the Durantula, again. Kevin Durant looked better than expected going 44/10/7/0/1 with 6 3s and 12-12 FTs. Sure you could argue the stat line was OT aided but just that Durant played 40 minutes after missing 6 games tells me there is nothing wrong with his ankle. I imagine any buy low window is long gone after this game but he might be worth one last attempt to trade for. If you thought this is why I watched this game though you would be wrong. I wanted to see the Steven Adams vs Alex Len match-up. Lurch with 9/7/1/1/0 in 27 minutes and Len with 2/6/0/0/1 in 22 minutes. There is no question Adams is the guy to own. Neither are part of the offense but at times Len looked bored and unsure of what he was supposed to be doing on both ends of the court. That is a sentence I will never write about Steven Adams. His aggression does one of two things. The foul trouble associated will give him a few duds but it will also lead to big games which I don’t think Len has in him this year. There were a ton of huge stat lines in this 137-134 overtime thriller but perhaps the stat that tells the biggest story was the 6 technical fouls. Including two and an ejection for…

I hope everyone in Razzball Nation had a fantastic Christmas! Hopefully Santa brought you many-a-counting-stats presents and stuffed your stocking with the same vigor as John Henson.

So I’m not too big into that Facebook thing, but a lot of the fam seemed to mention their “Year in Review” and the weird shizz it pulled in over the Holidays. Mine was two pictures other people put up and tagged me in, with a message reading “you have no life!” But if the magical minions put together a Razzball Year in Review, it would be peppered with more #OccupyDraymondGreen than you could throw a stick at! It’s hard to believe that the #OccupyDraymondGreen movement started on February 13th this year, and he was at 0% owned only a few games before the name was bequeathed. The #Occupy culture became a viral movement here at Razzball, with only us alternative lifestyle hipsters ranking him top-100 coming into the season. Boo-yah! Season made right there, screw any of that Victor Oladipo nonsense… While I had little-to-no concern David Lee would sap anything from the #Occupiers, Draymond Green had a coincidental teeny-tiny lull before some unreal rainbows on Christmas and last Saturday, going 10/10/3/2/2 on JC’s Bday and the biggie 4/8/6/6/3 against the Wolves in 32 scrappy minutes. Late entry to that comment! As we head into 2015, be sure to reflect on the highs-and-lows and whenever possible – #OccupyDraymondGreen! Here’s what else Santa has brought to us fantasy owners since Christmas:

Hope everyone is having a happy holiday season. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, Christmas has always a great day for basketball fans. We got a great slate of games, including some pretty amazing performances from John Wall, Russell Westbrook, and Dwayne Wade. We even got to see the Knicks’ teammates come to Qunicy Acy’s aid for a fight with John Wall.

Unfortunately, a few stars were missing from the Christmas games. The Thunder beat the Spurs in San Antonio, despite having superstar Kevin Durant on the sideline. He missed his fourth game in a row due to an ankle sprain. Durant was quoted as saying, “I can’t play basketball. I can’t run. I can’t jump. I’m not just sitting out just because. If I could play I would play. But I can’t play.”

Based on his comments, owners should expect to see him out another week or so. The injury is not related to his surgically repaired foot, but is similar to an injury he had in 2009, when he missed nine games. While Perry Jones will replace KD in the starting lineup, Durant is impossible to replace in real life and in fantasy. Owners will have to just wait for his return.

First I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. Hope no one is on the naughty list this year. Santa has given us four awesome NBA games and a game with the D-League Knicks. I don’t know what the NBA is thinking having the Knicks on Christmas Day but I guess it’s the NBA way of getting coal in your stocking. Now there are a lot of studs playing today and you are not going to be able to roster them all. I like to refer them as high ceiling and high floor players. We already know Kevin Durant, Chris Bosh, and Anderson Varejao are out. So if there is some news check the comment section. I will pass along any news I see. Remember that DraftKings is a late swap site. Good Luck and hope Santa was good to everyone.

It’s Christmas Eve! Santa is doing some last-minute shopping at the outlet mall, popping some speed to get over those procrastination eggnogs last night. Or maybe he was celebrating a big night from his fantasy PGs!

Just a reminder that this is the last Daily Notes for the week, which I hope doesn’t bring any coal to my stocking… Then again, no action tonight and then the light-slate Christmas Day games, so you won’t miss me too much! As always, all comments welcome through the weekend which I will get in between opening all my Brandon Knight memorabilia presents for Christmas!

Point guards just went nuts – like, chestnuts on an open fire nuts – all across the league last night. My boyfriend leading the charge! 34/2/5/1/0 for Knight, shooting 13-21 FG (4-7 3PTM 4-4 FT). To say he’s been up-and-down is an understatement, but right now he’s this kind of up! 20+ Pts in 5 of 6 and 4+ dimes in 5 of 6. The steals have come back down to earth a bit, but he’s only had 3 games on the season without a trey. Three! And that high-volume 90% FT shooting is oh so sexy. My advice has been to hold onto Knight all year (unless you could’ve sold high for something ridiculous a week in), and not get too worried about the ebbs and flows. Or else you would’ve missed out on a Christmas present like last night’s line! Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy action: